Stronger Laws to Deter Acid Attacks on Women

Perhaps the most appalling of these many forms of violence against women are acid attacks, which have become increasingly frequently in India Those who succumb to their injuries invariably die a painful death – acid eats into the skin, resulting in wounds that quickly become infected and cause septicaemia and other fatal conditions.Survivors, meanwhile, end up with scars that often last a lifetime, and many live out their days hiding what many described to IPS as their “deformed” faces and bodies from horrified gazes.

Though there is a dearth of official data on the issue, reports conducted by independent researchers and rights groups show that acid attacks are a gendered crime, with young women being the primary targets. The attackers, more often than not, are men whose romantic overtures were spurned.

Image taken from ibtimes.co.uk

In India, a largely patriarchal society that is on the cusp between conservatism and modernism – and where the aspirations of young girls and women to secure an education and find employment are supported by national economic development plans – hundreds of men feel slighted by women’s newfound independence. Unable to bear what they perceive as an insult to their “masculinity”, many seek revenge by physically harming women, in an attempt to reclaim their authority.

Eighteen-year-old Chanchal Paswan, hailing from the central state of Bihar, has a face that resembles nothing but melted flesh, the result of an attack that was supposedly “provoked” by her protesting against sexual harassment by four men.

Up until now, acid attacks have simply fallen under the general rubric of crimes against women, which numbered 244,270 in 2012 and included such atrocities as rape, dowry death (women killed or driven to suicide by in-laws to extort an increased dowry) and trafficking of women and girls, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

The eastern state of West Bengal accounted for 12.67 percent of these crimes, while its capital, Kolkata, ranked the third most dangerous Indian metropolis for women, behind Delhi and Bangalore. As such, the number of acid attacks in Kolkata is estimated to be higher than in many other cities around this country of 1.2 billion people.

Comments : In India acid attacks on women are way too high. Strict measure on sales of such chemicals should be brought into effect immediately. A scar for a lifetime , mental trauma and the torture of pain ! how long can we compromise on this ?